Brink review – raiders of the lost Ark

The creators of the Enemy Territory games bring you a brand new first person shooter that aims to blur the line between single and multiplayer.

Brink (360) â entering enemy territory

The one thing we can be sure of with this game is that it’s absolutely pointless to buy it on PlayStation 3 until the PlayStation Network is back online. This is as multiplayer-focused as it’s possible for a console game to get, but despite that single-mindedness it still manages to make the sort of schoolboy errors that should have had it put back a year (or at least a few months until it was more polished). If you know who Splash Damage are, or if you’ve ever played Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory or Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, then you’ll already have a very good idea of how this game works. It’s an objective-based, team-orientated shooter that plays very differently to the sort of lone wolf actioner popularised by Halo and Call Of Duty.There is a story of sorts, as you chose to join either the security forces or resistance fighters aboard a man-made island called The Ark. Following a spot of global warming The Ark has become horribly overpopulated and you’re tasked with either saving it or escaping from it.Although the game does try to emphasis the plot, with cut scene intros to each campaign mission, they can be played in any order and there’s only 10 of them for each side (and two of those are what if? scenarios). As you familiarise yourself with each the idea that they could be part of an ongoing narrative quickly becomes lost.Splash Damage’s calling card is the dynamic in-game objectives, which mean that you can select whatever goal you want and pursue it either as part of the team or on your own. Missions can have one or many pre-set objectives, such as escorting a VIP or blowing up a door, but most secondary objectives are created on the fly – such as capturing an enemy command post or opening up a shortcut.Where the problems start to creep in is that most objectives can only be completed by one of the game’s four classes: Soldier, Medic, Engineer and Operative (aka spy). All have a set of common abilities and weapons so you can instantly change them in-game at any command post.That all seems fair enough but if you’ve spent all your experience points upgrading the class you like best then you’re going to end up a spare wheel much of the time. Upgrading each evenly is obviously the answer, but that spoils half the fun of customising in the first place.Strangely, given Splash Damage’s experience, another major problem is the balancing, starting with the classes themselves – where the Engineer and his deployable turrets prove much handier in a fight than Soldiers. Many of the maps have frustrating bottlenecks too, which it’s impossible to break through if your opponents are present in numbers.In fact there often seems to be a worrying lack of tactics in general, with a large, disciplined team being almost unbeatable if they get settled into a position.Other flaws are equally baffling, with very limited matchmaking (you can choose whether to play with those of your rank or your rank and higher, but that’s it) and no lobby at all. There’s also very little clue as to how many real people are playing until you start studying the leaderboards.The computer-controlled characters can certainly shoot straight – and they know to stick in a group – but there’s no way to communicate with them or order them about. As a result playing the game on your own becomes as depressingly meaningless an experience as video gaming can offer.In Brink’s favour there’s the unusual art style for the characters, where everyone’s features are exaggerated until they look like a heavily-armed Spitting Image puppet. The most distinctive element of the environments is that they’re much more colourful than usual for a shooter. They’re also prone to more texture pop-in than we’ve seen since the PlayStation 2 era.There are mountains of customisation options for characters (although you can only play as a man) but it will take most players a surprisingly short time to max their avatar out and earn the obnoxiously named “Time to make a new character” Achievement. Even worse you’ll unlock most of the weapons and add-ons inside an hour.The parkour ability that lets all classes scramble over obstacles is definitely a neat addition though, even if predictably it’s not hard to find areas of a map it looks like you should be able to vault over but which you inexplicably can’t.There’s been a lot of complaints about the game’s online lag already on Internet, and now that the launch day (in America) patch is out the problem does seem much less prevalent. But unless a subsequent patch address the design issues as well this is only going to appeal to the most patient and dedicated of shooter fans.In Short:There are some innovative ideas here but poor balancing, restrictive matchmaking and too little content overwhelm the positives.Pros:The gunplay and controls – particularly the parkour elements – are excellent. Some interesting objectives and freeform play style. Distinctive art.Cons:Severely unbalanced maps and classes and no single-player mode worth speaking of. Short upgrade path and too few maps. No lobby and limited matchmaking.Score:5/10Formats: Xbox 360 (reviewed), PlayStation 3 and PCPrice: £49.99Publisher: Bethesda SoftworksDeveloper: Splash DamageRelease Date: 13th May 2011Age Rating: 16